14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re a long-time Windows 10 user, you probably know that the Windows Search isn’t necessarily the best thing that has ever happened to Microsoft’s operating system.
And if you still needed some more recent examples, just think of the blunder that occurred earlier this week and which broke down the search feature completely due to a web issue. In addition, Windows Search has started to show odd web suggestions lately totally out of the blue.
And now, it’s doing something similar, as Windows Search has started recommending people to go vote for president.
“Are you registered to vote? Check your status and deadlines,” a message that shows up in the search UI reads.
Powered by a server-side switch
That shouldn’t be a problem for most users since voting is quite important anyway, but the awkward thing is that the message shows up even on computers that aren’t located in the United States.
A discussion thread on reddit reveals that the banner shows up in various countries across the world, including several in Europe, such as the Netherlands. Users in Argentina and Canada have also confirmed that the same message showed up on their computers.
“My region is the Netherlands. The only reason that I would be from the US is that I use the US - International keyboard... I've never set a foot in the US,” one user explains.
Needless to say, Microsoft hasn’t said a single thing about this unexpected message showing up on non-US computers, but on the other hand, it’s important to know that it’s all powered by a server-side switch.
In theory, users should be able to prevent these messages from showing up by just blocking the web part of the search experience – some say that disabling Cortana also does the trick.